Noob help please - Wall mounting a rack?

[PennineRider]

Hello all,

As my first ever woodworking project, I want to build a simple wall-mounted rack for our spice jars, out of some 15mm pallet wood I have knocking round the garage.

It's a simple skeleton design: Four horizontals, two verticals.

Building the rack will be simple I think, but mounting it on the wall less so. My ideal mounting solution would be four keyhole brackets, inlaid flush into the verticals of the rack, then mounted on screws in the (brick) kitchen wall, for an invisible, "flush" mounting.

My questions:

1. The width of the keyhole brackets is 12mm, and they're the smallest I can find. The width of my wood is 15mm. If I try to chisel out my wood to mount them flush, there will be 1.5mm each side. Will I succeed or is this too fine a tolerance, and will I just make a mess?

2. Will four of these, slotted into plugs/screws on a brick wall, take the weight of my rack + 36 spice jars?

3. If my solution isn't going to work, then am I doomed to L brackets?

Thanks in advance

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Hi -

if it really is a solid brick wall, then three or four plugged screws ought to be more than strong enough if they're say 50mm or more into the wall itself.

Have you looked at French cleats as an option - it is possible to make these "invisible" with a little forethought? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cleat

Cheers, W2S

 

[MattRoberts]

Woody's idea is good - a French cleat or even a normal cleat would be a good solution

 

[PennineRider]

Thanks chaps.

Re strength - the weak point of the load bearing would not be the plugged screws in the brick wall, but the small wood screws used to mount the keyhole brackets onto my rack though, right?

Re French cleat - yes - that would be a fantastic solution but there's nothing on my skeleton design to mount into the cleat.

Unless...

OK. I'm trying the keyhole brackets. If that fails, I'm redesigning and adding a cleat.

 

[skipdiver]

I fitted mine with mirror plates, which can be orientated to the outside or inside if you don't want to see them as the jars will hide the protruding part. I also have a larger kitchen wall rack that i fitted battens/cross rails to at the top and bottom inside the shelves at the back, which i screwed and plugged through.

 

[AndyT]

There are problems with using keyhole brackets. The screws holding them onto your rack will be very small, since your wood is only 15mm thick. Also, it's very difficult to drill four holes into a wall and have them all so exactly in the right position to do their share of holding the rack.

I suggest you keep it simple and use longer screws, going through the rack, into plugs in the wall. You make holes in the rack, drill and fix one, set it level, drill the rest.

You can probably hide the screw heads behind the jars, but if they bother you you could use plastic caps which fit into a pozi head, or else the decorative screws sold for mirrors. They have a slotted head which is covered up by a chrome plated dome which screws into a small threaded hole.

 

[DiscoStu]

I'd do the same, drill through the back plate of your spice rack and screw into the wall through those. Ideally position the screws so that the spice jars cover them. Job done and a lot more secure than keyholes. Also I think you'll struggle to get them flush if you only have 1.5mm of space and it's on recycled pallets, obviously they're not made very accurately.


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[PennineRider]

Spice rack doesn't have a back plate!

Hmm... Thanks all - you confirmed what I suspected - that my very simple skeleton design did not allow a decent option for mounting. Back to the drawing board (literally)

 

[Racers]

I let in triangular plates in the corner of an upright and shelf, you can fit 3 screws in the shelf/upright and one in the hypotenuse into the wall it makes a strong fixing with very little showing.

Pete

 

[PennineRider]

I let in triangular plates in the corner of an upright and shelf, you can fit 3 screws in the shelf/upright and one in the hypotenuse into the wall it makes a strong fixing with very little showing.

Excellent idea - thanks. Care to link me to some please? I've had a look and the only ones I can find are 83mm square - I'd want something much smaller.

 

[Myfordman]

Design the French cleat into the rear of the top shelf.
Make the lower shelves that much deeper so it hangs correctly on the wall.

Also add a little ridge at the back and front of each shelf so the jars don't hit the wall or slip off the front.

 

[PennineRider]

Also add a little ridge at the back and front of each shelf so the jars don't hit the wall or slip off the front.

Going to rout a trough into each shelf so the jars line up neatly and securely

 

[nev]

Maybe cut a wedge out of the sides?

drill and mount wedge to wall.

align wedge with a shelf to prevent sideways movement.

 

[PennineRider]

Another brilliant idea - thanks Nev